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WEBINAR Immigrant Detention in , , and , and the COVID-19 Pandemic

May 6, 2020 2:30pm – 4pm EDT 1:30pm – 3pm CDT Featured Speakers

DONALD KERWIN Executive Director Center for Migration Studies

HIROKO KUSUDA Clinic Professor and Director of the Immigration Law Section Loyola University College of Law

AMELIA S. MCGOWAN Immigration Campaign Director Mississippi Center for Justice Adjunct Professor Mississippi College of Law Immigration Clinic

MARK DOW Author of American Gulag: Inside US Immigration US Immigrant Detention System

● Genesis of Webinar: A Whole of Community Response to Challenges Facing Immigrants, their Families, and Communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama

● The US Immigrant Detention System: Size, Growth, “Civil” Detention Population, Privatization, and Diversity of Institutional Actors

● Immigrant detainees v. persons serving time.

● Louisiana has always been one of the states with the most immigrant detainees. ICE Detention Facility Locator: https://www.ice.gov/detention-facilities COVID-19 and US Immigrant Detention System

● “Confirmed” COVID-19 Cases: (1) (no “confirmed” cases among detainees), (2) 20 (124 confirmed cases), (3) May 4 (606 confirmed cases in 37 facilities, and 39 cases among ICE detention staff). Source: https://www.ice.gov/coronavirus

● These figures do not count: (1) former detainees who have been deported, (2) ICE contractors (private, state and local, and others); and (3) non-ICE prisoners/detainees held with ICE detainees.

● ICE detention population: March 21 (38,058), April 25 (29,675).

is “nearly impossible in immigration detention.” As a result, ICE should “implement community-based alternatives to detention to alleviate the mass overcrowding in detention facilities.” Open letter to ICE Acting Director Matthew T. Albence, from several hundred medical professionals.

● Federal litigation in many districts seeking release of children, families, persons with severe risk factors (age, pregnancy, hypertension, weakened immune system), and others. Immigrant Detention System in the South “The Deportation Machine”

Hiroko Kusuda, Clinic Professor and Director of the Immigration Law Section Loyola University New Orleans College of Law IIRIRA & AEDPA

● Vastly increased the immigration detention population ○ Increased grounds of removal ○ Created mandatory detention & fast track removal ○ Eliminated key defense to removal ○ Restricted courts’ power to review cases ○ Increased funding for ICE enforcement ○ Quota for detention beds space Louisiana is DHS’ “Go-to-Spot”

● Concentration of immigrant detention centers in remote rural areas: ○ Cheap housing cost and labor ○ Distance from counsel, family, witnesses ○ Private operators (GEO, CoreCivic, LaSalle) Recent explosion of detention population

● The administration’s policy to detain a vast majority of asylum seekers and immigrants without criminal background

● After the Louisiana criminal justice reform emptied correctional facilities, ICE detainees filled the beds

● More than 7,000 detainees held in over 10 parish jails and private prisons in Louisiana and Mississippi (nationwide: 34,000) Conditions of confinement worsened

● The rapid expansion of contract facilities to locations far away from immigration bar/advocates/family

● Detainee transfer is frequent without notice

● Rules vary among the facilities (e.g., telephone, attorney and visitor access, medical care, ICE office presence, law library, commissary, no or few bilingual staff)

● ICE detention standards are not enforceable in the court of law and further weakened by the current administration Covid-19 Detention Litigation

● Mons v. McAleenan (D.D.C. 9/5/2019)(P.I. granted; class action) - “Covid-19” P.I. motion denied (4/21/2020) ● Fraihat v. ICE - (C.D.Ca. 4/20/2020)(P.I.granted; nationwide class action) ● Dada v. Witte (W.D.La 4/30/2020)(R&R) ● Gayle v. Meade (S.D. Fl. 4/302020)(P.I.) ● Eissen v. Barr (D.C. Co. 4/24/2020)(P.I.) ● Sallaj v. ICE (D.C.R.I. 4/24/2020)(TRO) ● Flores v. Barr (C.D. Ca. 3/29/2020)(detained children) ● O.M.G. v. Wolf (D.D.C. 2020)(family detention) “A Tinderbox Scenario”

Amelia McGowan, Immigration Campaign Director,Mississippi Center for Justice and Adjunct Professor, Mississippi College School of Law Immigration Clinic Exploding Immigration Enforcement/Detentions

● Large-scale workplace raids

● Increased collaboration between state/local law enforcement and DHS

● Detention of people fleeing persecution and torture Already Dangerous Detention Conditions

● Overcrowded

● Regular transfers of detained people

● Severely limited access to cleaning/hygiene products

● Substandard medical care (including mental healthcare) A Global Pandemic

● Medical professionals’ warnings

● ICE’s response: ○ Announced limited prosecutorial discretion (but later walked that back) ○ Published “COVID-19 Pandemic Response Requirements” (Apr. 10) ■ Directed facilities to identify and report high-risk detained people ○ Released some people with high-risk conditions ■ Fraihat: That’s not enough! A Short History of US Immigration Detention

Mark Dow, author of American Gulag: Inside US Immigration Prisons 1981 Haitian refugees at Krome detention center,

Photograph by Gary Monroe Photograph by Gary Monroe Duke University/Rubenstein Library Duke University/Rubenstein Library

1990 Krome North Service Processing Center

New York Times, 5/16/90

2019 "'for ICE representative Sean Gallagher to suggest that dangerous people are suddenly walking out of jail because of the termination of the 287g policy is engaging in cynical fear mongering.'"

--Mecklenburg , N.C., Garry McFadden

Source: http://www.mecksheriff.com/

Source: Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Accion, quoted in Mountain Xpress, Nashville, N.C., 2/13/19 2006-2020

Source: immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-foia/#memos Prison Privatization, Profit, & Lack of Accountability

Judge Jesus G. Bernal, Central District of Fraihat vs. ICE: (4/20/20) Source: freedomforimmigrants.org March 2020 South Louisiana Processing Center (ICE/GEO) Basile, La.

Screenshots from video interviews. Source: Debbie Nathan, The Intercept, 3/30/20. Questions, Comments, Resources

(Please type your questions in the question box on your screen)

● CMS, “US Detention and Release Policies Fatally Flawed.” https://cmsny.org/publications/immigrant-detention-covid/ (updated weekly).

● US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Migration and Refugee Services, and CMS, “Unlocking Human Dignity: A Plan to Transform the US Immigrant Detention System.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/233150241500300203

● American Immigration Lawyers Association Center, Resource Center: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) https://www.aila.org/advo-media/issues/all/covid-19

● "Egregious Violations" are Not New to ICE, AL.com, May 5, 2020

● ICE, Bristol Co., & the Racists, Haïti Liberté, April 29, 2020

● ICE Detention is a Danger to Louisiana Communities, The Lens, , 2020

● ICE Puts Detainees, Guards, and Public at Risk, The Crime Report, March 30, 2020,